According to estimates by the Ifo Institute, the number of short-time workers in Germany has risen only slightly since the beginning of the year. The Munich economic researchers took this as an indication on Tuesday that the German economy is resisting the energy price crisis better than feared last year. According to the Ifo, there are currently an estimated 205,000 people on short-time work, which would be 0.6 percent of the workforce and 19,000 more than in December.
“Short-time work remains at a low level,” said Ifo researcher Sebastian Link. “That fits in with a very mild winter recession.” Industrial companies in particular have currently applied for short-time work. Compared to the average, the proportion is very high in the paper, leather and textile industry with 6.4 percent of the employees, in absolute figures 23,000 employees. For the automotive industry, the Ifo Institute estimates the current proportion of short-time workers at 4.7 percent or 44,000 people, in the metal industry at 4.4 percent or 12,000 employees.
Measured by the very high numbers during the corona pandemic, only a few employees are currently receiving short-time work benefits. A year ago in January 2022, according to the Ifo Institute, there were 847,000 employees. In the first phase of the pandemic in April 2020, as many as 6 million people were on short-time work. (dpa)